


Partisan, The

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Post Bartlett Administration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-06-05
Updated: 2004-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-30 23:00:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15106577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: "As they poured across the border, we were threatened to surrender; this I could not do... The wind, the wind is blowing, through the graves the wind is blowing, freedom soon will come."





	Partisan, The

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

**The Partisan**

**by:** Suzanne

**Character(s):** CJ, Toby  
**Category(s):** General, Post Admin, Angst?  
**Pairing(s):** only very slightly, and only if you're looking.  CJ/Toby  
Rating: Safe.  And no wrong implications either.  
**Disclaimer:** characters you know aren't mine. The universe isn't mine either. I'm not that smart. But they aren't Sorkin's anymore either, are they. Does that scare anyone else? Ms Apsell is mine. This little plume of plot and nothing is mine. If you want it for your archive, I'd be flattered. But tell me where. And I doubt that anyone would like it enough to keep it anyway.  
**Summary:** "As they poured across the border, we were threatened to surrender; this I could not do... The wind, the wind is blowing, through the graves the wind is blowing, freedom soon will come."  
-the great Leonard Cohen, blessed be.  
**Spoiler:**   Evidence of Things Not Seen.  CJ's past a little (just a smidge) and up through season five.  
**Author's Note:** since this may be unclear, Marjorie is an old friend of CJ's from San Francisco. The main 'she' is CJ. Just so you know. tried to be a 100 word drable for the leonard cohen song titles thing. 100 words was so short (95, actually), so I gave that one to CJ, and then I let myself add another for Toby, which also turned out to be ninety-five words without trying. So there's one-ninety. And then it just kept growing from there. Just looked back over it. It's all very oblique down there, if you didn't know what I was talking about you wouldn't know what I was talking about. Lets hope it works.

Marjorie Apsell had red hair. It's possible that it was the only reason they had been friends, CJ thinks now. This woman in her office, she sees little to be fond of.  Was I ever that...? but she can't find the word.

And then she remembers they had fought the women's fight. It had been their blood. But time was like cotton batting, softening everything.

Magic is a flick of the wrist, so her boys learned to throw cards. Twice in her life she's seen a bullet meet glass. She sometimes wonders if she's a lightning rod. 

By now, he's had so many lives he doesn't think they all were his. Jewish. Writer. Soldier. Politico. Boy, Man, husband. Father and son. He could be his own holy trio, if his faith didn't lay elsewhere.

He's looked on so many battlefields that he can't see which takes priority. Except his daughter's eyes are brown and his son's hair is curly, and they will eat knowledge. That's more than he had predicted. 

He's possessive of his collected pain. What he has witnessed, and what has been gouged across generations. It's the muscle behind the balancing act. 

  
    -Your hair, (scandalized) he said in'94, -it's blond.  
    -Yes. She laughs. -Take my bag.

    Later.

    -When will you return to the fight?  
    -I am fighting. EMILY's List-  
    - Is a small LA organization. You belong in the big leagues.  
    -You mean, I belong with you? (Accusatory)  
    She has beautiful fingers and she has good hair. She runs one through the other. She doesn't regret the decision.  
    -Yes. (He's unrepentant) He never has been.}  


She probably wouldn't regret that either. But... He has restless fingers. It's a rocky world in the big leagues and she's clumsy. She's looking to change the system from outside.

Too many people think the best cleanser is blood. Blood is a heavy stain. Even when it's only figurative. Even when it's loyalty and not spite.

  
Much, much later, when these are only glory tales, people still are sighing for liberation. She remembers shuffling words like the best magician's assistant, her nerves remember the tricks, she can still feel the sounds inside her mouth. But she also remembers Marjorie Apsell. Regret, inadequacy, they are a bitter aftertaste. 


End file.
